‘Comments’ on the ESPN Matta story heavy on the ‘we could have had Archie’ if this happened in April instead of June. One noted Crean available. Tough spot for OS. Hope Matta falls into a good position.

Thad Matta leads OSU to a finals game and another final four appearance, but he’s fired after two sub-par seasons. More than ever, it’s a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately world. Would Crean still be IU’s coach if he’d lead IU to a championship game and one other final four appearance? Probably not, but isn’t OSU a “Football School”?

Looks to me as if Matta was a victim of physical and mental burnout. The expectations placed on these coaches are so high, the stress created by routine 90-hour work weeks year after year just breaks them down. And if these men have any chronic health problems, their fatigue is exacerbated. This reminds me of the stories coming out of the NFL, that more and more head coaches are suffering serious health problems and ending their careers early due to work-related stress.

Hey, now we’ll get an entirely new stream of rumors and speculation about how OSU is going to lure Matta’s former Assistant Coach, Brad Stevens away from the Celtics. My bet is that either Brandon Miller or Chris Mack will be offered the job.

Whoever OSU hires will have to accept being second fiddle to the football coach. That probably limits the candidates to “up-and-coming” coaches like Brandon Miller and Chris Mack. No way a Sean Miller or other successful head coaches at “basketball schools” are going to toil in Urban Meyer’s shadow.

Football coaches rarely give Kentucky a second look for that reason. They had Bear Bryant as a head coach but they were never going to pay him Adolf Rupp (certainly one of the most vile and despicable men to every coach a game) money so he left.

Podunker- You fail to mention the key Indiana recruits that were instrumental in Matta getting to his Final Fours. He is not one of the upper echelon coaches of college basketball. It has nothing to do with being in the “shadow” of anything. He could never wear that 24 hour smirk on his sideline face without Hoosiers on his most lethal Final Four rosters.

Michigan, MSU, and UK began to win the battles for top Indiana recruits after Matta’s intermittent success in landing Oden, Conley and Thomas.

Of course, outside of Zeller, Crean was losing on most the top names from the state throughout his carnival act.

Then again, Harvard, what is IU Basketball without Ohio? What is IU Basketball without a Buckeye named Bob Knight? What is IU Basketball in Knight’s most storied undefeated years without Scott May from Middleton, Ohio?

For that matter, what is Bob Knight without Isiah Thomas? Was Isiah from Indiana?

Maybe that’s the signature of the greatest coaches in the game. Maybe the greatest in the coaching game know how to get the most of every link in the chain. Sure, the top talent is instrumental. But the best coaches never treat them as being instrumental. They do the utmost to keep it a team game. They teach first and preserve the humble appreciation for the ‘specialty acts’ of sorts on the roster who may not be the entire package, but are just as irreplaceable in getting to those historic banners and achievements.